Résumé :
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This book is about the distribution and abundance of different types of organism over the face of the earth, and about the physical, chemical but especially the biological features and interactions that determine these distributions and abundances. Ecology is not an easy science, and it has particular subtlety and complexity. It must deal explicity with three levels of the biological hierarchy - the organisms, the populations of organisms, and the communities of populations - and, as we shall see, it ignores at its peril the details of the biology of individuals, or the pervading influences of historical, evolutionary and geological events. It feeds, in a peripheral way, on advances in our knowledge of biochemistry, behaviour, climatology, plate tectonics and so on, but it feeds back to our understanding of vast areas of biology too. The book presents the following chapters : Part 1 : Organisms 1 - The Match between Organisms and their Environments, 2 - Conditions 3 - Resources 4 - Life and Death in Unitary and Modular Organisms 5 - Dispersal, Dispersion and Migration in Space and Time Part 2 : Interactions 6 - Intraspecific Competition 7 - Interspecific Competition 8 - The Nature of Predation 9 - The behaviour of Predators 10-The Population Dynamics of Predation 11-Decomposers and Detritivores 12-Parasitism and Disease 13-Symbiosis and Mutualism Part 3 : Three Overviews 14-Life-History Variation 15-Abundance 16-Manipulating Abundance : Killing and Culling Part 4 : Communities 17-The Nature of the Communities 18-The Flux of Energy through Communities 19-The flux of Matter through Communities 20-The Influence of Competition on Community Structure 21-The Influence of Predation and Disturbance on Community Structure 22-Food Webs 23-Islands, Areas and Colonization 24-Patterns in Species Richness 25-Conservation and Biodiversity
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